


Vault Eater

by WaterySoup



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, vault hunter au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-03 16:29:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4107502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaterySoup/pseuds/WaterySoup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sirens are hardier than that.<br/>Vault keys are hard to find.<br/>Eridium is an inconvenient life-source.<br/>Aliases can protect you from the people who killed you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Viking funeral

**Author's Note:**

> on tumblr @ literallibrarian.tumblr.com/tagged/vaulteater  
> Each update will be added to that tag. Enjoy.

The sky went red for a brilliant moment as debris plummeted through the atmosphere. The ground shook for miles around, pocket marks scarring the pale flesh of the dust.

Something living crawled a few feet from the small shell of twisted metal it had descended in, blood and sizzling purple leaking from lacerations and broken bones. Rasping breath caused coughs, splattering blood and more of that purple across the beige in front of them. The massive hunk of metal, blackened and red-hot, pinged and sizzled softly as it cooled. Certain spots in the crater had turned to glass, making macabre sculptures across the desert landscape. All was quiet but these small interruptions as sand was carried by a gentle wind around the collapsed figure.

The surface of pandora seemed silent with concern.

Then there were howls, skags, bristling and massive, appeared over the lip of the crater. They seemed to hesitate there, waiting for some unseen signal to move in. One of them, large and painted with blood red markings, sauntered down into the dip. A few who had been next to it whimpered softly, closing the gap.

The beast circled the wreckage, pausing to closely inspect the bleeding thing. It snuffled softly at the figure and turned in time to witness a humanoid form round the crest.

Other skags had parted for this figure, who none-too gently leapt down to the lone skag. This figure was a woman, lean and muscled, with holes where her eyes should have been. The surrounding area on her face as scarred pink from the dark brown of the rest of her skin. She was wrapped in Kevlar and burlap, a bright poncho covering her.

She bent down, hand going to the skag's head. It lowered it down to the figure's face. Her hand shifted from the skag to the figure's cheek, and she stiffened. The figure breathed out.

"Mi amigo, how did they survive?"

The beasts response was a soft hoot, too gentle for the source.

"No hablo skag, amigo." She replied, running her hand down the figure's side. She encountered the figure's arm, and traced dimly glowing markings, which made the barest indents into skin. "No way, a siren? Aren't they able to use eridium for healing? Cogjaw, get eridium!"

The skag turned lazily and padded off at a slow pace until- "QUICKLY, YOU SMELLY LUMP!"

As the red painted skag tore off, followed by a small band of yellow-painted ones, the woman gently hoisted the siren into her arms. A groan of pain escaped the slender figure, and the woman hushed her softly. A small cluster of skag pups parted as the woman climbed the crater rim, one or two brushing against her legs, directing her the way she came from.

* * *

 

The sound of gasping breath filled the small room, the pale siren laying upon the cot in the corner struggling to breath. A skag was resting on the floor beside the bed, and when it heard the siren's struggle, it grabbed the girl's arm, shaking gently. The girl snapped awake, sitting up, blue eyes wide, looking like a drowning fish. She grabbed a bar of eridium off the shelf next to her bed, clutching it tightly. It melted in her hands, markings flaring up brightly as she absorbed it.

The skag released her and went back to its spot. Through a small window next to the girl's bed, the first rays of the day were crawling across pandora's surface, tinting the dunes across the horizon a vicious pink. With a sigh, the siren slid out of bed and made her way to the door, careful not to disturb her roommate.

Upon entering the hall, she was greeted by the smell of freshly-baking crepes. With a grin, she traversed the maze-like warehouse, reaching the industrial kitchen, where her host was cooking, despite her missing eyes.

"Good morning Alpha" the siren rasped, her throat raw from her sickness.

"Good morning, child. Would you like crepes? I am going to be cooking Rakk strips next for Cogjaw, if you need the protein."

"No thank you, crepes are fine. Is this the stuff you got from Skipper?"

Alpha nodded, clicking her tongue. Cogjaw, the red-painted skag, turned off the stove. The siren took the spatula when it was offered, and removed the crepes from the pan, moving them onto cracked porcelain plates. She handed the older woman a fork and got to eating her own food. She would have killed for sugar or strawberries to put atop the crepe, but considering where they were, she was grateful enough.

"Sweetheart." Alpha suddenly said, jolting the siren out of her food-dreams. "I think we should see about alleviating your eridium problem. As in, we must make some sort of portable injector for you. Then you can leave here and do whatever it is you need."

"That sounds like a great idea," said the girl, brushing her black hair from her left eye, only for it to slide back into place.

"We can ask Skipper, he probably knows enough to make one. He also needs to find us a new eridium supplier. Unless you want to do that yourself," Alpha continued, setting her fork down on the counter beside her.

"How would I find eridium though, Alpha? I can't exactly just ask someone to supply my eridium addiction."

"Easy, can't find new suppliers, find a vault. I heard of a deal- ten million for a vault key. If you ask Ellie, she can get my old car for you."

The siren nearly dropped her plate. "Ten million dollars? We can't afford that!"

"Easy, honey," said the woman, taking her plate and setting it down on the counter. "You can take one of the skags with you, like Lophead. Steal it."

The image of the skag that was sleeping in her room popped into the girl's head. "That... Doesn't sound like too bad of an idea. But it's probably heavily guarded, and Hyperion-if there is a key, they would want it."

"Oh honey, of course it will be guarded, that's why you'll take Lophead. And some of skipper's guns." Alpha grinned, and made a soft clicking sound with her teeth. Cogjaw snuffled in reply and slunk off.


	2. Viking funeral pt.2

The first thing the siren woke to was a skag licking her hand before settling up against her. Her blue eyes scanned the outline of the beast, not realizing what the lopsided creature was. It took several seconds for her sleep-fogged brain to register that one of the most deadly predators on pandora had settled next to her.  
Her body flooded with adrenaline and she stiffened, trying not to move. The only response from the beast was a soft snuffling as it shifted to get more comfortable. The siren glanced around the skag’s form, looking at the room she was in. It was painfully obvious that she wasn’t where she had spent most of her life, the chamber with its white walls and sterilized smell. This room was in ruins, all dilapidated walls and peeling paint. But beside her, on a polished night-stand with only a few scratches, was a pristine, white, ceramic bowl. When a breeze blew through the room she could smell the soapy scent of the water inside, along with something sharp and cruel.  
She recognized this second smell.  
This second smell was that of eridium, and her eyes didn’t need to adjust to the dim of the room to see that there was a stack of eridium blocks against the far wall, glowing purple and sizzling softly.  
It took her moments to realize that the pain in her limbs and head was withdrawal. Despite the creature beside her, she readied herself to jump up, grab the eridium, and defend herself the best she could.  
She tensed up and jumped over the skag, landing heavily on her feet. She grabbed a bar of eridium. Turning to defend herself, her marks flared up-  
The skag was looking at her lazily. It huffed and put its head back down on the mattress, paying no mind to the girl’s glowing arm. The adrenaline in her veins seemed to drain out completely as she straightened up.  
Huh.  
“good... skag?” she said, realizing how hoarse she sounded.  
“Nasty. Gross,” she rasped, touching her throat with a grimace.  
Behind her she heard something ascending creaking wooden stairs, and turned to look at the doorway. A tall, heavily muscled woman had reached the top of the stairs outside the door, and was accompanied by a skag, painted red along the sides.  
This woman was missing her eyelids covering little holes where they should have been. scars crisscrossed her face, concentrated on her eye-sockets. Her skin was dark, and hair was done up into braids that wrapped around the crown of her skull like a black crown. She wore a brown, stained leather jacket with holes ripped into the sleeves.  
“Ah, good morning, niño. How are you? Well, I hope?” She smiled and offered the girl a sandwich, halved and without crusts, on a chipped plate.  
“I- uh. I’m good. Thank you for uh, asking,” the siren replied, confused, taking the plate.  
The lopsided skag hobbled past her into the hallway, greeting the red skag with a huff. The two bumped heads gently and settled down next to the eyeless woman.  
“I hope little lophead didn’t scare you, must have been strange to wake up after three weeks of sleep to see such a butt-ugly skag.” The woman turned her head vaguely in the direction of the two skags, smiling.  
“mi nombre es Alpha,” she continued, extending her hand carefully. The siren stepped forward and took it, shaking it gently.  
“Uh- I’m uh,” The girl trailed off, hesitating to tell the other what her name was. A little shake of the head was Alpha’s reply. “it’s fine, mi amigo.”  
“Thank you.”

* * *

 

The walk to Skipper’s wasn’t long, but Lophead had the attention span of a goldfish, and tried to eat every rock that was smaller than him. And some that weren’t smaller than him. So the siren had to pick the pup up, despite his whines of protest, and carry him the rest of the way there.  
Skipper was out in front of his engineering shed as usual, attempting to stick loader bot legs to a cl4p-tp shell. Lophead wiggled out of the girl's arms, dropping to the ground and sprinting up to skipper.  
He was looking for snacks. Skipper misunderstood this as affection, and leaned down to pat the pup on the head. In retaliation for not receiving something edible, lophead grabbed his hand in his mouth and bit down.  
This only caused skipper to laugh.  
He looked up and waved to the siren as she approached, wearing a wide smile.  
Skipper was a tall man, thin as a stick, with brown eyes, a hooked nose, and a kind smile. He normally wore a faded yellow Hyperion shirt, the emblem written over in sharpie, (now reading 'valkyrie' in slanting scrawl) and long cargo pants, several shades lighter than his skin.  
The reason he wasn't in pain when lophead bit him was clear when he freed his hand from the skag's maw. The fingers on his left hand were tarnished bronze, mechanical things.  
"Mornin' skipper," she said as she nudged lophead out of biting range, earning a little snap and hiss in her direction.  
"Goodmorning miss siren!" Skipper said, putting down the wrench he held in his other hand. "What do you need today? Anything in particular?"  
"Actually, uh, yeah. I need a portable eridium injector and another crate of eridium."  
Skipper sat down on his workbench, frowning. the man hesitated to answer, letting the girl know that she wasn’t about to hear good news. She knew exactly what he was going to say.  
"I know you need eridium to live, miss, but, well, I've got one crate left, a small one, and my employer is starting to get suspicious. You know they'd sell you out to Hyperion or some such."  
The girl took some of her hair between her fingers and started twirling it nervously. She didn’t want to have to actually go and steal a vault key. She had seen before what happened to people who go against hyperion while dealing with vault keys.  
And there was the probability that he was still alive, waiting for the right time to return as the 'one true hero' of Pandora. He would want the Vault key. If he found out she was still alive, she would be in big trouble. And not just grounded.  
Skipper sat up a bit, seeing the nervousness of her expression. "I mean, it's been a long time since you arrived here, so you've had a good year or two's worth of eridium down your system. You can probably find more, it’s not too hard. I'll work on the eridium injector, though, so I'm gonna need to give you some port-things to jam the needles in. So they don't fall out. I’ll also need to make measurements and such, you know how it is with pseudo-medical stuff.”  
She knew exactly how it was with pseudo-medical stuff. Her fingers went to the two neuro-ports embedded in the side of her head. The hair had grown back there- originally it was shaved short, but now hung down to her chin. The rest of her hair was braided, having gotten long enough to necessitate such an action.  
It had been nearly two years since her legal death. Two years since her father fired her into the atmosphere of pandora, intending to have her burn up in a twisted version of a Viking funeral.  
Too bad sirens were hardier than that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> episodes will come in 2-4 parts.


End file.
